Large businesses were unimpressed with Alistair Darling's credit crunch budget.

While executives welcomed most of the business support measures, the ­consensus was that these were relatively small-scale initiatives that would be ­overwhelmed by the severity of the economic downturn and the enormous rise in government borrowing. Provisions that failed to impress included a £750m ­strategic investment fund, reforms to the taxation of foreign profits, a boost to capital allowances to encourage new investment, plus a number of energy-related measures including incentives to advance production from small North Sea oil fields and to encourage offshore wind farms.

Andy Green, chief executive of Logica, said: "The business-related stuff overall is lightweight. The new strategic fund is vague – and it is much more important to get bank lending restored, and for business to have the confidence it can get access to capital."

David Andrews, chief executive of Xchanging, a FTSE 250 business processing specialist, said the budget had done "diddly squat" for his company and added the strategic investment fund "is not worth a bean". He criticised the chancellor for making "cheap jibes" at other countries, after Darling said the UK was performing better than Germany and Japan. "I am speaking to you from Germany, and when people like Darling have a go at their economies they pick it up, and that makes it harder to do business here," he said.

"This is not a genuine budget to inspire entrepreneurialism; it is the reverse. Why are we so obsessed with banking? What about all the other companies seeking to grow?"

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, added: "There are some good measures for ­business at a micro level, but we still think ­Darling's forecasts are over-optimistic. What has really taken people aback is the sheer scale of borrowing and worry about how it will be clawed back."

Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK, said: "Naturally, most of my focus is on energy and I reckon he moved in the right direction… On a broader level, though, the debt levels are concerning."

Others damned Darling with faint praise. Mark Constantine, co-founder of toiletries retailer Lush, said: "They haven't screwed it up, which for this ­government is an achievement. A badly drawn budget could have plunged us into depression and that is bloody frightening, but they haven't done anything really bad."

Edward Bonham Carter, chief executive of Jupiter Asset Management, said the chancellor's "soporific" delivery disguised the "petrifying" contents of his red briefcase. "He is rather like a generous uncle handing out presents to his nephews, all the while hiding the fact he is bankrupt. It just compounds the difficult inheritance for the next government, which will probably be Conservative."